{"id":2397,"date":"2016-11-05T20:58:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T20:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/?p=2397"},"modified":"2017-02-21T22:09:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T22:09:24","slug":"diet-hopes-day-2-recipe-frustration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/diet-hopes-day-2-recipe-frustration\/","title":{"rendered":"Diet Hopes Day 2, Barrier #2:  Recipe Frustration #)*+^#$%#!!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"color: #800080;\">And the Solution: &#8220;Inevitability Planning&#8221;<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2402 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Stuck-in-5-Recipe-Rut-e1478379464410.png\" alt=\"Stuck in a rut picture\" width=\"937\" height=\"707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Stuck-in-5-Recipe-Rut-e1478379464410.png 937w, https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Stuck-in-5-Recipe-Rut-e1478379464410-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Stuck-in-5-Recipe-Rut-e1478379464410-768x579.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 937px) 100vw, 937px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Feel stuck in a &#8220;5-Recipe Rut,&#8221; making the same few things night after night?\u00a0 If so, it&#8217;s not hard to understand why.\u00a0 Just think about the times you&#8217;ve been inspired to try a new recipe.\u00a0 Its picture looked great and you&#8217;re committed to trying something new.\u00a0 So at least you have your head behind your actions and you&#8217;re past Barrier <a href=\"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/28\/diet-hopes-day-1-getting-out-of-the-starting-gate-do-i-really-want-to-bother\/\" target=\"_blank\">#1 explained in the previous post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But walking in the kitchen at 5:30 you run smack dab into Barrier #2:\u00a0 Recipe Frustration.\u00a0 For example, you picked a soup recipe that looked easy enough, but now you see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>it calls for Z&#8217;atar (what the heck is that?)<\/li>\n<li>it says to puree the soup with an immersion blender (how do I do that?)<\/li>\n<li>you&#8217;re supposed to soak the cashews overnight (oops, forgot that!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To top it off, a spouse or kid asks what&#8217;s for dinner and either looks doubtful about your new idea or just says, &#8220;Yuk!&#8221; outright.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s that.\u00a0 You shelve the new idea and just make one of your old standbys.<\/p>\n<p>This is where I found myself on Day 2 of my almond milk experiment.\u00a0 I was all excited to make the first batch, but got shut down barely after starting.\u00a0 Being committed to the experiment, however, I didn&#8217;t just give up but stopped and thought about why I couldn&#8217;t pull off something this simple.<\/p>\n<p>Understand that the standard recipe for almond milk has only four ingredients and three steps.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ingredients<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Almonds<\/li>\n<li>Salt<\/li>\n<li>Water<\/li>\n<li>Dates<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Steps<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Soak a cup of almonds and then drain<\/li>\n<li>Blend soaked almonds with a date, salt and more water<\/li>\n<li>Strain the mixture<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Doing these steps, in and of themselves, should have been a no-brainer.\u00a0 But I couldn&#8217;t make my hoped-for batch of almond milk happen:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I hadn&#8217;t added dates to my shopping list, so of course I didn&#8217;t have any at milk-making time.\u00a0 But no problem, I thought.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll just make an unsweetened version.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I thought I had almonds, but when I actually checked there was only half of what I needed.\u00a0 No problem, I&#8217;ll just halve the recipe, I punted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">When I actually read the instructions closely, I saw that I was supposed to use a nut milk bag to strain the milk.\u00a0 I had no idea what that even was and emailed the recipe blogger to find out.\u00a0 In the meantime, I decided to make do with my bone broth sieve.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I thought I was home free&#8211;just barely&#8211;until I read that the almonds were supposed to be soaked overnight.\u00a0 That was one obstacle too many and I called it quits.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #800080;\">The Solution:\u00a0 Inevitability Planning <\/span><\/strong>Ever heard the term &#8220;Inevitability Planning?&#8221;\u00a0 It&#8217;s the key to starting a new habit, i.e., you must <strong><i>plan<\/i> <\/strong>to make a new way of doing things <strong><i>inevitable<\/i><\/strong>.\u00a0 That&#8217;s exactly what I hadn&#8217;t done&#8211;and what most people don&#8217;t do when they decide to make a new recipe (or implement any new habit, for that matter.)\u00a0 That&#8217;s why many of our diet hopes and goals get abandoned.\u00a0 Despite our best of intentions and a solid commitment, we can&#8217;t turn them into natural, easeful habits because we haven&#8217;t created the supportive environment that allows them to take root, grow and blossom.<\/p>\n<p>The solution:\u00a0 Before racing into the kitchen all fired up to make nut milk, I needed to take the time to<strong><i> get prepared<\/i><\/strong> to make almond milk.\u00a0 Ditto for any diet dream or hope:\u00a0 <strong>P<i>lan<\/i> <\/strong>so success is <strong><i>inevitable<\/i><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Making a Timeframe Adjustment<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 Interestingly, the critical first step of inevitability planning is just slowing down and adjusting your time frame to accommodate planning and preparation time.\u00a0 For me, this meant the postponement (but not the abandonment) of my diet hope.\u00a0 Instead of giving up because I couldn&#8217;t do it <i>tonight<\/i>, I gave myself an extra week:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I&#8217;ll be going to the store again anyway so I can get the dates and more almonds&#8211;and I wrote them on my list immediately<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I can find out what a nut milk bag is and locate one.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I now know to soak the nuts all night&#8211;so I can build that in to my schedule<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">And having finally read the instructions closely, I know the recipe is better tackled the first time on a night when I&#8217;ve got a little more time and brain space&#8211;so I&#8217;ll choose a night that isn&#8217;t already packed with other to-dos.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>How about you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span> Take a look at the diet resolution you&#8217;ve committed to.\u00a0 Have you planned ahead so success is inevitable?\u00a0 What needs to be done in advance to make it happen?\u00a0 Buy a new ingredient?\u00a0 Learn a new technique? Set aside an adequate space of time?\u00a0 Get a new tool?\u00a0 Feel free to share any insights you make in the Comment box&#8211;we can all learn from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And the Solution: &#8220;Inevitability Planning&#8221; Feel stuck in a &#8220;5-Recipe Rut,&#8221; making the same few things night after night?\u00a0 If so, it&#8217;s not hard to understand why.\u00a0 Just think about the times you&#8217;ve been inspired to try a new recipe.\u00a0 Its picture looked great and you&#8217;re committed to trying something new.\u00a0 So at least you &#8230; <a title=\"Diet Hopes Day 2, Barrier #2:  Recipe Frustration #)*+^#$%#!!\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/diet-hopes-day-2-recipe-frustration\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2397"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2468,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions\/2468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}